Palm Springs residents Michael Kape and Paula Johnson talk with the Desert Sun about the long and 'complicated' ballot as well as the controversial vacation rental ordinance, Measure C.
Joseph Hong, The Desert Sun

Riverside County Supervisor Manuel "Manny" Perez easily won his election bid Tuesday, securing more than 56 percent of the vote against challenger Jan Harnik.

After early returns showing Perez maintaining a comfortable lead, Harnik broke the news to her supporters.

"We got our first numbers in and I've got to tell you, they are not what we would like them to be," the Palm Desert city councilwoman told a crowd of about 60 people gathered at Casuelas Cafe.

Trailing Perez with 44 percent of the vote, Harnik said the disappointing returns would not stop her and her supporters from "being great neighbors, great community members."

While Harnik's election party was solemn following the early election numbers, Perez's parties were quite the opposite. Playing to his diverse base of voters, Perez hosted two parties on Tuesday night, one in Palm Springs and another in Indio.

The Palm Springs event was filled with local politicians and activists, like State Senate candidate Joy Silver. But the event in Indio turned into a block party, complete with a Cumbia band and taco stand. Children danced to the live music on Indio Boulevard and guests piled salsa onto carne asada tacos.

“Once we saw the results at 8 pm, I said, 'I think this is turning into a party,'” said Steve Hernandez, Mayor of Coachella, who was in attendance to support Perez.

But the campaign season leading up to the primaries was anything but a party. The race for Riverside County Supervisor of the Fourth District had been one of the most contentious in the current local election cycle.

Perez was appointed to the position of county supervisor after his predecessor, John Benoit, passed away in December 2016. Perez, a former California Assemblymember, was appointed to the position by Governor Jerry Brown, though Benoit had expressed his preference for Harnik as his successor. The district stretches from Palm Springs to Blythe.

The race garnered a lot of attention among voters, mainly because of Harnik's controversial campaign tactics.

In March, members of Harnik's campaign filed a lawsuit against Perez and the County Registrar's Office, which eventually forced the registrar to amend Perez' ballot designation by adding "Appointed" to the incumbent's title. The previous version had just designated Perez as "Riverside County Supervisor."

Months later, Harnik's campaign caused a significant uproar by launching campaign ads and mailers blaming Perez for a number of heinous crimes committed by convicted felons after they were released early from prisons across California.

The ads detailed the crimes of Michael Mejia, who shot and killed his cousin as well as Whittier Police Officer Keith Boyer after an early release from jail in L.A. County, and Jerome DeAvila, a Stockton man who raped and then murdered his own grandmother after being released early on a 30-day sentence, among others.

Harnik based her attack on Perez' affirmative vote for AB 109, a "public safety realignment bill," which set the requirements to be met for early releases from California jails. Perez had voted for the bill as a member of the California State Assembly in 2011.

As a result of AB 109, inmates of California's overcrowded state prison system can be transferred to county jails, sometimes resulting in early releases for qualifying inmates of those facilities to make space for the new arrivals.

During her campaign party Tuesday night, Harnik said she wouldn't change anything about how she ran her campaign despite the push-back she received. She said she believed “voters needed to know what each candidate’s values were, and Manny voted for AB 109...I would not do my ads differently. The opposition needed to know my opponent and my opponent refused to debate me, so voters had to know (his values) some way.”

Harnik reiterated that her ads were not fueled by racism, but fueled by her belief that AB 109 failed as a policy decision.

"Crime has no color and victims don't care about color or gender or race or ethnicity," Harnik said. "My position was just about failed policy."

Voters reacted strongly to the accusations made in Harnik's ad.

"Jan Harnik has been very involved in the community but it is to bad she did not choose to run on her record," Indian Wells resident Linda Pelegrino wrote in a letter to The Desert Sun. "Instead she chose to engage in fear mongering. Her flyers and ads are despicable," Pelegrino added.

Some voters suggested Harnik's campaign was fueled by racism towards her Latino opponent, while others questioned the relevance of her public-safety focused campaign for the office of county supervisor, who has no control over the state's criminal justice policy.

"These mailings, as well as her television ads, say absolutely nothing about her ability to govern Riverside County," Bruce Iwamoto of La Quinta wrote in a letter to The Desert Sun.

Perez' campaign has mostly refrained from any public reactions towards Harnik's attacks, except for a campaign email sharing District Attorney Mike Hestrin's discontent with his inclusion in the campaign mailers.

"I did not give my permission to Councilmember Harnik, or to any member of her campaign – nor did I have prior knowledge that Councilmember Harnik was planning to use my image and quote me on her campaign mailer," Hestrin is quoted in the release.

Aside from the controversy of the campaign, Harnik was still focused on discussing her fiscal concerns for the county during her election party Tuesday night.

"The county is operating in the red and they need to look long and hard on our budget to have prosperity," she said.

The Harnik supporters that filled the patio of Casuelas Cafe agreed.

Ruth Ann Moore, of Palm Desert, said while she was disappointed with the early election results, she still believes Harnik was the best pick to address budget issues.

"Jan is extremely dedicated to the entire area," Moore said. "The budget is still a huge concern. It is doesn’t get remedied soon our children will be paying for it in the future and I thought Jan would have been capable of handling that.”

At 11 p.m., the Riverside County Registrar had still reported only 17.31 percent of votes, with Perez leading by 13 points. Perez refrained from celebratory speeches, but expressed confidence.

"We're cautiously optimistic," Perez said. "I'm hoping we can declare victory by the end of tonight, maybe tomorrow morning."

After a contentious campaign, Perez had a message for his opponent. "I look forward to working with anybody who might not support me," Perez said. "I will do my best to extend the olive branch."